All the King's Men

by Robert Penn Warren

book data

3,941 ratings, 4.12 average rating, 478 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		42%
4		35%
3		16%
2		4%
1		1%

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published

September 1st 1996 (first published 1946) by Harvest Books

binding

Paperback, 672 pages

literary awards

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1947)

isbn

0156004801 (isbn13: 9780156004800)

description

This landmark book is a loosely fictionalized account of Governor Huey Long of Louisiana, one of the nation's most astounding politicians. All the Kin...more

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05/10/08

Jon rated it:

Read in January, 2009

recommended to Jon by: JWL

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a good 8 months. I have known of this book and how good it was supposed to be for a while, but I have been waiting for the right time to read it. So a week before the inauguration I decided to pick it up and read...

For the last six years of the Bush2 administration I had a tendency to get myself worked up over the absurdity of it all. I think what most disturbed me about the state of politics during the time period was the fragility and mal...more This book has been sitting on my shelf for a good 8 months. I have known of this book and how good it was supposed to be for a while, but I have been waiting for the right time to read it. So a week before the inauguration I decided to pick it up and read...

For the last six years of the Bush2 administration I had a tendency to get myself worked up over the absurdity of it all. I think what most disturbed me about the state of politics during the time period was the fragility and malleability of Truth. With a capital T. I say that knowing the truth, in a constantly evolving world, is always malleable, but facts are not. They are not temporal. At least at the scale we are talking about. So when Barack Obama came along I recognized someone that was, at the very least, speaking the same language as me. It was a language that reeked of the Truth.

First things first -- I will say some stuff about bookish, writerly things that people have a tendency to get their panties in a bunch about around here. RW Penn was the first Poet Laureate of the United States. It shows. I have never read any of his poetry, but I will call him a poet from now on. To me, the book reads very much like a poet writing a novel, which explains much of its length. The narrator, Jack Burden, is the book’s conscience as you are guided through the plot. As such he is probably one of the most developed characters I have read in a long time. Another byproduct of this is his tendency to digress into beautiful and ethereal descriptions of people and places in a way that give an unusual depth into his (and your) experience. What is unique about it is not so much the beauty of the descriptions, but rather how he relates these descriptions to the eternal questions of the human condition – the hallmark of (good) poetry. Jack Burden was the poet’s tool to make his way into the form of a novel. So without Jack Burden at the helm of this book, it could have easily been 400 pages shorter…and a real clunker. Needless to say, it is a beautifully written book with whole paragraphs you want to commit to memory

Anyway. Why was this a good choice to read over the course of Barack Obama becoming 44? It is such a weird thing to think about. The white men in this book still owned slaves. Plantations were still a reality of the post civil war south. If Willie Stark (or Huey Long) would run for office today, especially in the South, they would be labeled a Communist or a Socialist. Willie Stark could not even exist in the age of Bush and Obama. But besides the real ideological shift in the political and social cultures, the essential function and infrastructure of the political machine remains exactly the same. The whole day of the Obama inauguration was kind of surreal, for me, and probably for a number of people. And then later in the day I came across this little gem from Jack Burden (trying to place his identity in the timeline from past to future) that placed the book and the day squarely in reality for me:

…reality is not a function of the event as event, but of the relation of that event to past and future events. We seem here to have a paradox: that the reality of an event, which is not real in itself, arises from other events which, likewise, in themselves are not real. But this only affirms what we must affirm: that direction is all.

I read somewhere that one of Obama’s favorite philosophers was Reinhold Niebuhr. One of the seminal books on politics was written by Niebuhr -- Moral Man and Immoral Society . You get the idea by the title -- the relationship of Good and Bad as set in the context of the individual and society. Person = good. People = not-so-much. Penn obviously read this book and has infused Willie Stark with kernels of this Niebuhrian philosophy. Except it gets all mixed up in his head in his blind ambition for power. Good begets bad begets good. Repeat. Stark is just a cog in this machine and you get the sense he does not even know which way is up anymore. Chewed up by the monster that created him. But Burden is always there. He is framed as a “historical researcher” who is only in search of the Truth. Always objective. Trying to shed light on the Good and the Bad he sees all around him, while also trying to locate himself within the framework of history and the future. He thinks the Truth will set him free. And it does.

There is one other thing between Stark and Obama that is in the back of my mind. Scaring the shit out of me. I am thinking it. But I am not going to write it down. No way.

So I used the Obama inauguration to frame my thoughts about this book in a modern setting. I could easily write a 100pg thesis on the subject and find it somewhat difficult to filter it down into a short form review. That is how interesting I find it all. But I should say that is not at all necessary. The book stands on its own. And always will.

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02/29/08

Heather Hadlock rated it:

bookshelves: literary-novels

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in May, 2008

Compelling, overstuffed, overplotted, sexist, labyrinthine, poetic, atmospheric. To me this book's status as The Great American Political Novel seems like a terrific bitter joke, because the author's vision of "politics" is comprised entirely of blackmail, physical intimidation, pork-barreling, rabble-rousing, nepotism, bribery, rigged elections, and hilariously contrived "family values" photo shoots. (I love the scene where a photographer and two aides attempt to wrestle a ...more Compelling, overstuffed, overplotted, sexist, labyrinthine, poetic, atmospheric. To me this book's status as The Great American Political Novel seems like a terrific bitter joke, because the author's vision of "politics" is comprised entirely of blackmail, physical intimidation, pork-barreling, rabble-rousing, nepotism, bribery, rigged elections, and hilariously contrived "family values" photo shoots. (I love the scene where a photographer and two aides attempt to wrestle a comatose, foul-smelling dog into position for a shot of the dog leaping up to greet its beloved master, the Governor!)

I would place this novel in the Philosophical Potboiler genre (together with "East of Eden" and "Sophie's Choice"). There are lengthy meditations on the Human Condition, the nature of History, the problem of Free Will, the Original Sin of slavery as a hereditary taint corrupting the southern upper class, etc... woven among scenes featuring such archetypes as the Angelic Woman (Anne Stanton), the Demonic Woman (Sadie Burke, and Cass Mastern's mistress), the Saintly Aesthete and Crypto-Homosexual (Adam Stanton), the Seductive Mother, the "Colonel Sanders" With a Secret (Judge Irwin), and What's Bred in the Bone Coming Out in the Flesh (Tom Stark, the embodiment of his father's egoism and brutality). In the ranks of minor characters we find the Long-Suffering Wife in the Country (Mrs. Stark), and Flannery O'Connor-style Mad Missionary (Jack's father). What an array!

There are a number of rather heavy-handed themes, of which I thought the most interesting was the contrast between Jack the self-identified "student of history" and product of History, and Willie the man without a history... no family, no formal education, no tradition, nothing to explain his ambition, charisma, ruthlessness, and power over others. There seems to be a trade-off between History and Act. Jack is Burdened by the past at every level -- his parents' broken marriage, his half-mad father, his unfinished dissertation, the end of the plantation class's reign in Southern politics, the guilt of slavery. He lives in a fog of depression, cynicism, sophistication, and rationalization. He is fascinated by Willie at their first meeting because Willie is his opposite: an earnest rube who seems unaware of his own dorkiness and believes the political game could and should be played fair.

But Willie isn't just a naif. He's also a kind of monster. Even at that early stage there's a monstrous ego and ambition germinating inside him... ambition not for political goals but for personal power and domination. Where does his ambition come from? What sets Willie apart from any other impoverished child of dirt farmers in any other wretched little town like Mason City? And which side is the true Willie Stark -- the idealist who fights on behalf of poor farmers and families, the builder of new roads and schools and hospitals, or the bully who fights for the sadistic joy of humiliating and dominating others?

These mysteries haunt the novel, and Penn Warren never offers a solution. Willie remains an enigma from start to finish. In fact I felt that Penn Warren wrote himself into a corner - he COULDN'T solve the enigma of Willie Stark's origins and essential nature, so he shifted focus to the more solvable mysteries in Jack Burden's past.

I don't think the Jack Burden plot has aged particularly well. It has the kind of heavy-handed Freudianism you see in 1950s movies... the seductive mother, the discovery of the True Father; the taboo of virginity; the sorting of women into angels and whores, spirits and bodies. Almost every character has at least one light or dark "double" (Willie/Jack, Willie/Adam, Jack/Adam, Sadie/Ann, Burden/Irwin, Lois/Ann, etc), which is very schematic. The happy ending is only achieved by the death/disappearance of everyone but Jack and Ann... they don't so much overcome or escape the Burden of history as have history conveniently relax its grip on them. (less)

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01/23/08

Teresa rated it:

Read in October, 2008

I first read this in Oct '06 and just re-read it for a discussion that was held in conjunction with this year's Louisiana Book Festival. It's amazing what one forgets in just 2 years, but what I didn't forget was Warren's lyrical way with words and structure, and the questioning, many times sardonic voice of his narrator, Jack Burden. It was a pleasure to read it again.

It took me so long to read this book in the first place because I thought it was going to be 'just' a fictionalized...more

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09/02/07

Andrew added it

Read in August, 2007

All the King’s Men is often promoted as a novel about politics, occasionally even the quintessential novel of American politics. While I did enjoy the portrait of Willie Stark as an archetype political boss, more interesting, to me, is the struggle of the narrator, Jack Burden, to overcome his nihilistic doubts in the face of a world governed by power. Jack claims to overcome his nihilism (“the Great Twitch”) by coming to an understanding of the morality of his own life (the personal an...more All the King’s Men is often promoted as a novel about politics, occasionally even the quintessential novel of American politics. While I did enjoy the portrait of Willie Stark as an archetype political boss, more interesting, to me, is the struggle of the narrator, Jack Burden, to overcome his nihilistic doubts in the face of a world governed by power. Jack claims to overcome his nihilism (“the Great Twitch”) by coming to an understanding of the morality of his own life (the personal and inter-personal) in relation to the ethical valuations of history (on the stage of the world).

So I read the larger narrative of the book in the light of Jack’s search for meaning, rather than seeing Jack as merely a narrator to the story of Willie Stark. From this perspective I think All the King’s Men tells a compelling story of Stark as a politician who, despite by all outward appearances of being driven merely by a quest for power, can in fact believe in the righteousness of his actions. He accomplishes this through an elaborate scheme of means-end reasoning and a vision of purpose that captivates or even short-circuits his own moral calculus. Willie Stark constructs a narrative of meaning through his campaign for a hospital that will serve all people, regardless of income, and is not mired in the exigencies of political reality that becomes for him a trump card in any consideration of the morality of his actions.

The ethically pious and occasionally self-righteous Doctor Adam Stanton serves as a foil to Stark, with their lives ultimately meeting in a tragic end as though destined by their inability to grasp the ethical possibilities of their world that the narrator, Jack Burden, eventually realizes. Adam’s attempt to live ethically through nonparticipation with evil and political power is sacrificed with the realization of his father’s ethical shortcomings; he then steps into the world of power by agreeing to oversee the construction of Willie Stark’s hospital (creating odd parallel between the two in that the hospital serves for both of them as the symbolic touchstone for an ethical life). Yet this critical step, away from a sanctified idealism into the practical world of compromise leads eventually to his tragic confrontation with Willie Stark. In the end, his defining action is not aimed at any practical end but is rather either an emotionally-driven strike against the objectification of his own (and his sister’s) moral compromise. The reader is left to ponder whether this outcome is this simply the natural result of his step away from a “kingdom of ends” in agreeing to join Stark’s hospital or a product of his inability to cope with the fallen nature of humanity.

That’s what I got out of it anyway. For a more critical view highlighting literary shortcomings and racial and gender issues, read “All the King’s Men—A Case of Misreading?” by Joyce Carol Oats in the New York Times Book Review.
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12/23/07

Mister Jones rated it:

recommended to Mister Jones by: My Southern Literature Teacher

For my money, I think this is the greatest book in Southern Literature exceeding Faulkner. All the King's Men is much more than the usual purported centrality of Willie Stark's political motives and final demise, and the usual shallow analogies to Huey Long; if anything, the novel's narrator, Jack Bundren, is a cynical person whose life has unraveled. I think the one scene with Jack's father will always stay vivid as the epitome of Southern Grotesque. It is a multi-layer novel--with clarity and ...more

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03/20/09

Nate rated it:

This is one of my favorite novels - really, the book that helped me define what a novel even is. There's a real breadth to the action of this novel and characters that are real in ways I hadn't come across in a novel before. I found myself equally drawn to the quiet lyrical moments of this and the more declarative sections of action and character manipulation.

The overall plot - political intrigue in Louisiana politics - is so secondary to my enjoyment that I almost forget that is t...more

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01/30/09

Greg rated it:

Read in April, 2009

I try to hand out 5-star ratings to books that meet some minimum criteria. For one, it can’t be a 5-star in my rating system if offensive language is prolific. That is the reason I stepped this book down from a 5-star to s 4-star. I would just caution that the language used in many cases is raw with a lot of deity degradation.
I find myself wondering at times if I’m becoming desensitized. I realize that these characters are flawed and that they are probably not true repr...more

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05/28/08

Brinda rated it:

Read in June, 2008

This book was unlike anything I have ever read before and I doubt I will read many of its caliber ever again. It is an epic, biblical, human yet quintessentially American saga, disguised in the bizarre circumstances surrounding a particular brand of local Southern politics. In Willie Stark, Penn Warren has created the ultimate American antihero -- describing to the tee the populist circus the campaign trail becomes, with Willie playing off the parasitic needs of potential voters and staffers and...more

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09/03/07

Coy rated it:

(review of isbn 0156047624)

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Coy by: Angela

I can understand why people call this a classic. It sort of reminds me of the Great Gatsby, one of my favorite novels. I can also hear the narration at the end. It's deep, nostalgic, matter of fact and meloncholy-- like saying goodbye. That reminds me of A River Runs Through It. After all is said and done, however, I can't say that All the Kings Men, to me, was as good as a River Runs Through It or Gatsby.

This I write much to the dismay of my girlfriend, who not only loves All...more

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03/19/07

Christy rated it:

Read in March, 2007

recommends it for: history buffs/ politicos

Well, I enjoyed reading it. Things that bothered me:
1. blantant patriarchal taint. But hell, it's about politics in the 30s and written by a man, so what can you do?
2. it buttresses so many bunk assumptions about the way that the world is supposed to work. So--violence/coersion are necessary and there is no escaping exploitation. I guess that feeds into it's whole patriarchal bent. It doesn't really question the underlying premise of our society or offer alternatives.

Th...more

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02/14/08

matt rated it:

(review of isbn 0156012952)

bookshelves: america--f-k-yeah-, fictions-of-the-big-it, social-crit, top-shelf

Read in September, 2005

This book grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in when I picked it up at the bookstore and I couldn't breath until I finished it.

This is exactly what American politics, in the essential or fundamental sense, are about. Innocense gets you into the game, experience gets you further, ruthlessness gets you ahead.

Its narrated with zest and sarcasm and this particular version is great because it throws in all of Warren's original extras- references, allusions, extra pl...more

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01/20/09

Joanna rated it:

(review of isbn 1419344501)

bookshelves: plain-ol-fiction

Read in February, 2009

recommends it for: Michael Emerson fans!

Whew, I finally made it! I thoroughly enjoyed this story, although I have to confess I don't think audiobooks are really my bag. I kept spacing out while listening, and had to replay the same passages over and over. Which I loved, because I can never get enough of Michael Emerson's voice and the impossibly cute way he has of saying words that begin with "wh," but it did drag a 12-hour audio into a five week experience.

I just loved the character of Jack Burden and his rando...more

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07/22/07

Emma rated it:

(review of isbn 0156012952)

This is one of my favorite books. In addition to writing novels, Robert Penn Warren was a poet laureate. When I was first introduced to this book I was told that it was a lyrical novel, which I assume means that its prose have rhythm and tempo. In addition to being a captivating story, the style of the book is constantly engaging. I love the description at the beginning of the novel when the characters are driving down a highway road in Mississippi at night. The author sets the tempo of the m...more

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06/12/07

James rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

Read in April, 2006

This tale, probably the most known work of Warren (prominent critic and one-time U.S. poet lauerate), surrounds the rise to power of a vastly influential progressive southern governor modeled on real life's "Kingfish" Huey Long.

Though both film renditions have wone certain acclaim, one should really disregard them for two different awful manglings of the plot. The novel, however, particularly when considered as an American political novel, is exemplar to say the least.

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04/14/09

Paul rated it:

(review of isbn 015101163X)

bookshelves: 2009

Read in April, 2009

In a word, this book is written: confidently. The prose flows naturally and smoothly, descriptions and anecdotes go on and on (though to the point, sometimes, of superfluousness), and everything just sort of comes together nicely due to the author's and, to some extent, the narrator's confidence in telling the story. It was definitely an enjoyable book to read, despite the times I felt I was being dragged along unnecessarily. Having finished the book and gained a complete respect for RPW's writi...more

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05/08/09

David Holden rated it:

Read in May, 2009

Unfortunately tagged a "classic" and thereby shunned by most readers, this novel, now over sixty years after its publication, has a surprisingly modern sensibility through Jack Burden, its narrator.

Read it for the richness and lilt of its language, the precision of its prose, its dead-on dialogue, the way it shuffles its chronology (unusual in a novel of its era) in the service of its central idea, that history is something that not only impacts us, but we are part of in ...more Unfortunately tagged a "classic" and thereby shunned by most readers, this novel, now over sixty years after its publication, has a surprisingly modern sensibility through Jack Burden, its narrator.

Read it for the richness and lilt of its language, the precision of its prose, its dead-on dialogue, the way it shuffles its chronology (unusual in a novel of its era) in the service of its central idea, that history is something that not only impacts us, but we are part of in that what we do impacts others. Read it for the way it incorporates themes, characters and imagery seamlessly - this is novel-writing by a master craftsman. Robert Penn Warren was about forty when he wrote this book; I find his writing as rich and thematically fruitful as anything in Faulkner (though more accessible), and am surprised Warren isn't in the pantheon like the latter. (Warren, by the way, is the only writer to have won a Pulitzer Prize in both prose and poetry; his evocative language in All the King's Men is testament to his ear and the meticulousness the of his pen).

Hollywood makes the mistake of trying to adapt a novel like this and ends up with only the story, which provides merely the novel's structure. The characters lack the delineation, and the voice of the narrator gets trashed. Moral ambiguities, the core of All The King's Men, become secondary to a sensationalistic plotline - if noticeable at all, and (of course) the story gets shifted solely to the rise and fall of Willie Stark - forget that boring Jack Burden guy. (If you have to watch an adaptation, watch the original one of 1949 starring Broderick Crawford with Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie - Oscars went to all three).

What still startles about the politics of the book (despite the author's disclaimers, there's a resemblance to the career of Louisiana's Huey Long) is not the corruption itself - we've seen that and more depicted by now - but its corrosive nature on all those involved. Willie Stark (the self-proclaimed hick who becomes populist governor) is a complex man whose rise to power is as idealistic as it is grounded in an understanding of what indelicate means might be necessary to get things done. The intertwining of Jack Burden’s story and Willie Stark’s goes back in time, interestingly, and goes deep between them, leading to the climax (which I won’t divulge). All are touched by the events they have in one way or another fostered.

Jack Burden tells the tale in a wry, world-weary, voice that is as sharp and harsh on others as it is self-deprecating. At the end I felt saddened - not only that the read was over! - but that the provocative and disturbing vision of the book had come to an end. (less)

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03/21/09

Cyril rated it:

Read in March, 2009

"The definitive novel about American politics," stated the New York Times, but there is actually very little politics in this book. The political world of Willie Stark (based on Huey Long, the governor and senator from Louisiana) serves as the background for the narrator, Jack Burden to act and think. His cynical world-view is very similar to mine, and that is probably why I like this book. This is one of the quotes I found entertaining: "Lois looked edible, and you know it was te...more

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04/29/09

Bob rated it:

Read in December, 2006

This is probably #2 on my most-often-reread list. I encountered it first in high school, and have come back to it several times throughout adulthood; every time I seem to discover something new. The characters are as richly drawn as you will find, especially Willie and Jack. Even Tiny Duffy, who you think (like Willie) you have safely tucked away in a box, turns out to surprise you with his sudden ruthlessness. The story--with its arc of fall and the search for redemption--beautifully sets the m...more

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05/07/08

Polomoche rated it:

I had to add this book after watching all the mudslinging in this campaign, the simplified messages, etc. Essential reading for understanding American politics. NOTHING has changed, except we spend less time now mulling over moral dilemmas and just go straight for the jugular, at whatever ethical cost.

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02/25/09

Don rated it:

Read in February, 2009

The blurb on the back from the New York Times says this is "the definitive novel about American politics". I don't think that's correct. For real insight into politics, I'd put Advise and Consent up there, as well as any one of several novels by Ward Just; I'm sure there are others that could compete for the title.

Warren's book isn't so much about politics as about the human condition and the narrator's journey to self-awareness. The narrator, Jack Burden, is a fascinati...more

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"Just tell 'em you're gonna soak the fat boys and forget the rest of the tax stuff...Willie, make 'em cry, make 'em laugh, make 'em mad, even mad at you. Stir them up and they'll love it and come back for more, but, for heaven's sakes, don't try to improve their minds. " More quotes...